Patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastric carcinoma or carcinoma of the esophagogastric junction without prior palliative therapy will be treated with 8 cycles of the FLOT scheme (up to 12 cycles if the response is favourable). Prior to enrollment a unique and detailed clinical evaluation of the dissemination of the disease will be done which includes a differentiated regard of the metastatic status. patients will be classified as having either (A) locally advanced, (B) limited metastatic, or (C) extensive metastatic disease. In arms A and B surgical intervention is planned if operability is reached. The hypothesis is that by classifying patients more individually by the state of their disease, patients in arm B will have a significantly prolonged overall survival compared to patients in arm C.